League of Legends upcoming Team Builder queue moves into open beta this week

Throughout this week, Riot will be beta testing Team Builder mode for League of Legends. The new queueing system is designed to let players specify their preferential positions and champions ahead of a match, so that people can be distributed in a way that theoretically prevents arguments about the team dynamic. If it works, players will no longer be forced into vicious squabbles over who gets to be Teemo.

"Team Builder is a new queue where you select a specific role, champion and position before joining a team," explain Riot. "Everyone knows what they're playing and where they want to go, laying the foundation for great teamwork."

The test is taking place on live servers, and as such will be available in each region for 48-hours as part of a staggered rollout. First up are the RU and EUNE servers, starting later today. The tests will run until March 7th, and a basic beta schedule can be found over at the Team Builder official FAQ .

According to Riot, their long-term plan is for the system to take player experience into account. That could mean being matched up at different skill levels depending on whether you're taking on a role for the first time, or have previous experience with a particular champion. The system will also include a Captain mode, where players can build a specific team specification in mind. From there, the queue will look for other players wanting to try a specific configuration, encouraging experimentation that goes against the meta-game.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phil has been PC gaming since the '90s, when RPGs had dice rolls and open world adventures were weird and French. Now he's the deputy editor of PC Gamer; commissioning features, filling magazine pages, and knowing where the apostrophe goes in '90s. He plays Scout in TF2, and isn't even ashamed.